Barta said Iowa working through issues with Dolphin

IOWA CITY — Iowa basketball play-by-play man Gary Dolphin again apologized to the Iowa athletic program on Friday and both he and athletic director Gary Barta said they are looking forward to moving ahead with their 22-year relationship.

Dolphin was suspended for two games this week for comments he made during a timeout in the Hawkeyes’ victory over Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Dolphin was critical of the recruiting efforts of head coach Fran McCaffery and also criticized the play of junior guard Maishe Dailey. He thought he was making the comments off the air but they were inadvertently broadcast to listeners.

Barta issued a midweek statement saying there had been “ongoing tensions’’ between Dolphin and the basketball program but when he spoke to reporters prior to Friday’s Big Ten opener against Wisconsin, he declined to specify what he meant by that.

“That’s between Gary, Fran and myself,’’ Barta said.

“Those tensions were real and we needed to work through them,’’ he added.

Dolphin was scheduled to miss the Wisconsin game and Monday’s game at Michigan State, but Barta said he will return to his duties for next Thursday’s game against Iowa State.

He said he and McCaffery had talked to Dolphin this week and resolved some issues.

“It was a real healthy conversation,’’ he said. “We’re all on board with the plan moving forward.’’

Dolphin apologized on the air immediately following the Pitt game and reiterated his feelings Friday on Twitter.

“I’m in complete agreement with the two-game suspension, this is on me and nobody else,’’ he wrote.

Some Iowa boosters came out in support of Dolphin and Barta admitted that more than half of the response he received from fans supported the veteran broadcaster.

Subscribe to Breaking News

* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.